Special Report
The end of an era
Willie Seeman has died at the age of 89. Amongst many other things, he will be remembered as founder of IFCA, the In Flight Catering Association. Jo Austin reflects on his life
Sue, Martin and I have worked closely with Willie over the last ten years as publishers of OnBoard Hospitality, which was also the official ITCA magazine during that time. He was a man with enormous passion and energy who never failed to make his thoughts and feelings known. Our Editorial Committee meetings held at his home in Surrey were never dull!
Willie built IFCA (now known as ITCA) from small beginnings in the UK in 1980 to the global international travel catering body it became. He succeeded in gaining recognition for the inflight catering industry elevating it in stature and providing networking platforms at annual trade shows and conferences held all over the world. Willie also led the work to establish the association’s network of international committees and educational activities. He introduced the Mercurys Awards to recognise and reward innovation within the industry.
Many who knew him in this official capacity will have no idea of the extraordinary life he led before he set up IFCA, through the major political and economic upheavals of the 20th century. Born in Vienna in 1922, he was part of a family that had become successfully established in a fuel and coal business that was abruptly disrupted by the arrival of Hitler in Vienna in 1938. As a patriotic Jewish family they had made no preparations for such an event, and his father was forced to sign away his company to the Nazis. Willie, his parents and his brother Robert were able to escape to Mombasa in Kenya, where
they arrived virtually penniless and were obliged to start their lives from scratch. Willie worked variously as an assistant on a chicken farm for £1 a month, then as a coffee roaster, before finally setting up a sausage farm, initially using camel meat. It was also in Kenya that Willie met and married Herta, on the last day of 1942.
“Willie was a man with enormous passion who had a profound knowledge of the travel catering industry worldwide”
Soon the Seeman family was rebuilding its business base: Willie, Robert and their father started a Pan-African import agency, while continuing their other jobs to make ends meet. After a trip to New York ,Willie clinched a deal to import cars into Kenya via Haifa, the first consignment of which was shipwrecked. Next came the foundation of the family inflight catering company, Nairobi Air Services, supplying flights from Johannesburg up through Africa and then via Malta and Marseilles to London. “Mother baked the cakes. We loaded the aircraft wearing formal uniforms and saluting the passengers and served the cakes, Wiener schnitzel, chicken and
Willie Seeman with Martin Steady, publisher of OnBoard Hospitality
beef “, Willie once recalled in an interview. Willie and his family ended up with 18 African kitchens in the early 50s, as well as running a pan-African travel agency.
After the death of his brother Robert in 1972, both the flourishing businesses were eventually sold. By now Willie and Herta were living in England, where Willie worked as a catering consultant for several years, as well as running several F&B ventures.
In 1980, together with Ann Cameron, his secretary at Trusthouse Forte, he had the idea of the formation of a trade association aimed at elevating the position of catering within the airline industry and around 1000 letters were mailed to suggest the formation of IFCA. The initial meeting at Gatwick in 1981 attracted 140 instead of the 20 or so that he expected. From the first annual convention at the Waldorf in London’s Aldwych, IFCA and then ITCA went on to stage numerous conventions over the years throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions and developed a membership peaking at over 700 companies. Willie’s wife Herta predeceased him. He is survived by their children Susan and Dinah, two grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
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